Scripting/morphing/transitions for time-lapse jerkiness reduction?

RichMacDonald wrote on 8/14/2003, 10:38 AM
I use my Sony TRV-900 to capture long-running scenes like sunsets and the latest full moon/mars moonrise/moonset. Since this is an all-day/all-night scene, I have to use the time-lapse feature of the camera. Basically, it takes 2 seconds every 30 seconds. On capture, every 2 seconds is its own clip, however, I can also capture without scene detection to get a single avi file.

The result is fun to watch, but is jerky: A smooth section for 2 seconds, then a "jump" to another 2 seconds that is 28 seconds later. Since I generally speed up the result by a factor of 10 or more anyway, the jerkiness is less noticeable and I can live with it. However, I'd like to play around and find something better:

I'd like to try something like positioning each 2 second clip at its correct position in the timeline (i.e., at every 30 second step), then inserting an "interpolating transition" between each clip to cover the intermediate 28 seconds. Perhaps the WinMorph transistion? Although if I have to do this manually, it'll take forever....a good mooncycle is about 1800 clips. Or perhaps a simple blend transition. Either way, I'll still have to freeze the end of each clip and drag it to the following one.

I'm just thinking out loud right now and haven't experimented yet. But I was wondering if anyone else has faced this before and has a better idea. TIA.

Comments

jetdv wrote on 8/14/2003, 10:44 AM
What if:

You go ahead and capture them each in their separate files and drag all the files to the timeline specifying an automatic overlap/dissolve of, say, 20 frames. Then each image will dissolve into the next.
johnmeyer wrote on 8/14/2003, 11:19 AM
For future projects, a much better solution is to capture directly to the computer using the time lapse feature of SCLive. Here is how it works.

You connect your camera to the computer via the Firewire (1394) cable. If your computer is a long way from your camera, you can use a laptop computer and capture to it. I have a relatively old Compaq Presario 1800T laptop (700 MHz) and I bought a 1394 PCMCIA card on eBay for $15. Thus, if you have a laptop, this isn't a big expense. The Vegas license lets you put Vegas on your laptop as long as you don't use it at the same time as the one on your main computer.

You then download and install SCLive ($39 shareware). It is also know as ScenalyzerLIVE. It has a time lapse feature that will let you capture 1 out of every "n" frames, where "n" can be set to anything. With this setup, you can set "n" really high and capture flowers growing, or relatively low (like 10), and get a great sunset. The results are perfect, and there is no post production needed. The final advantage is that there is no constant start/stop wear and tear on your video camera. In fact, to make this work, you have to take the tape out of the camera so it doesn't turn itself off (most cameras stop if left in camera mode for more than a few minutes in order to eliminate wear on the heads).

SCLive is a great program to have around for any number of other reasons. You can try before you buy. I highly recommend you take a look.

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